Memorial to be dedicated on the 60th anniversary of Korean armistice

Jul. 25, 2013

This photo of Army Staff Sgt. William B. Knepp was taken in September or October 1952 in Korea. / Provided

Lewis Lasley, Robert Sterling and Bill Knepp, Korean War vets, stand near a new Korean War memorial at Clermont County's Miami Meadows Park. Knepp and Sterling began raising money for the memorial three years ago. Lasered onto the lab is a photo of a bunker in Korea that Knepp helped build in 1952. / The Enquirer/Cara Owsley

Event details

• Dedication of the Clermont County Korean War Memorial is set for 3 p.m. Saturday in Miami Meadows Park, 1546 Ohio 131, Miami Township. Registration of Korean War veterans, and a concert of patriotic music, begins at 2 p.m. Guests should bring their own chairs. • Donations to the Korean War Memorial Fund can be sent to National Bank and Trust, 735 Lila Ave., Milford, 45150. • Information: 513-831-2932 (after 7 p.m.) Additional memorials, honoring those who served in other U.S. wars, will be erected in the Spirit of ’76 Memorial Gardens and Arboretum if money can be raised. Anyone interested in such projects can contact Amanda Maggard-Ramsey at Maggard Memorials: 513-282-6969 or maggardlaserart@hotmail.com.

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MIAMI TWP. — Some things a soldier never forgets, even from a war that ended 60 years ago.

Bill Knepp, who is 82, can quickly recite his Army serial number. He recalls every part of the .30-caliber M-1 rifle he carried in the mountainous terrain of Korea.

He remembers, too, promises he made in 1952 as a staff sergeant fighting the communists. One promise was made to God: Spare my life and I will serve you.

“That night,” he says, “we were on a mission near the foothills of Old Baldy. I was point man, and we proceeded up a hill. My radio man, in back of me, saw the enemy rise up and get ready to fire. He pushed me aside, and he took it.”

The bullet killed the radio man, Pfc. Paul R. Bradley, a Portsmouth, Ohio, native whose family moved to Hopple Street in Cincinnati.

Carrying Bradley’s body back to U.S. lines, “I made him a promise,” Knepp says, “that a war memorial would be built.”

The first promise – to God – Knepp kept long ago. He raised his family in the Methodist church. He became a licensed minister and, while working another full-time job, served three congregations.

“Now,” Knepp says, “I’m keeping my promise to Paul R. Bradley.”

July 27 marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean armistice. That day, Knepp will be in Miami Meadows Park in Clermont County’s Miami Township for the dedication of a Korean War memorial.

Knepp and another Korean war veteran, Robert Sterling, 82, both of Miami Township, planned and raised money for three years to make the memorial a reality. A third veteran was equally involved; R.J. Vilardo of Milford was 82 when he died last November.

Knepp and Sterling say it is important to honor those who served in Korea. It has been called the forgotten war, even though almost 1.8 million American military personnel served in the Korean theater. Almost 34,000 were killed in battle and 103,000 were wounded. About 8,000 remain missing.

The war began June 25, 1950, when communist North Korea invaded non-communist South Korea. The United States and other United Nations members came to South Korea’s aid. Communist China joined forces with North Korea.

Knepp, assigned to the Army’s 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, arrived in Korea in 1952. By then, a series of offensives and counteroffensives had ended and the war was a stalemate, with neither side giving much ground.

“We fought a World War I-type war, out of trenches,” Knepp says. “They were some of the most fierce battles.”

The armistice signed on July 27, 1953, established the 38th parallel as the permanent zone separating North and South Korea.

When he left Korea, Knepp carried a small memento: a photo he’d snapped of a bunker his unit had built in the fall of 1952 near a place called Pork Chop Hill. A few days after the picture was taken, while Knepp was out on patrol, the bunker took a direct hit from enemy mortars, killing several U.S. soldiers.

Like many veterans, Knepp for years never talked about his war experiences.

“We pushed it aside and went on with our lives,” he says.

He got a job as a bread truck driver, went to night school, earned a degree and fashioned a career in sales and marketing. He and his wife, Nancy, raised three children.

Three years ago, one of those children, Gary Knepp, an attorney, writer and historian, began research for a book about the Korean War. He asked his father questions. And Bill started talking.

They noted the lack of a Korean War memorial in Clermont County. They got together with Sterling and Vilardo and formed a committee. Miami Township trustees agreed to set aside 8 acres in Miami Meadows Park. Then the veterans started fundraising; they received no government money.

They’ve raised about $50,000 in cash and $32,000 of in-kind donations; they still need about $10,000 to finish the project, which is part of what’s called the Spirit of ’76 Memorial Gardens and Arboretum.

It includes a Freedom Trail with benches inscribed with excerpts from historic documents and speeches; a Grove of American Colonies with a crab apple tree and plaques for each of the original 13 colonies; and a Liberty Tree. Those and related projects happened with help from Eagle Scouts and students from Milford schools.

The Korean memorial, though, is the centerpiece. Broken boulders, symbolic of the mountainous terrain of Korea, surround a platform encased in stainless steel. Atop it is a 6-foot-long, 3½-foot-high slab of polished black granite from Maggard Memorials & Laser Art Technology in Lebanon.

Laser-etched into one side of the granite is the image of the bunker Knepp photographed and helped build in Korea. On the other side is a list of U.S. military units that served in Korea, and their casualty totals.

The memorial will be engraved with the names of the 19 men from Clermont County who died in Korea. Nearby, Knepp says, on a list of those whose contributions made the memorial possible, will be the name of the soldier who saved his life: Paul R. Bradley. ■

I cover eastern Hamilton County communities, Clermont County and the Cincinnati Zoo, and write about local history. Email me at jjohnston@enquirer.com